The truth about Christmas

  • Michelle Botha
  • Nov 22, 2009
  • Series: The Informer

According to the media, in all its pervasive forms, the festive season is upon us. This is of course ridiculous because it’s November and there’s absolutely nothing festive about November unless you get some kind of twisted enjoyment from final exams or filling in your tax forms or, in fact, the strange recurrence of stormy winter’s days. However, for most of us, I would imagine, being stressed out and damp is not something which merits the response, “Ah, how very festive I feel!”

Nevertheless it seems advertisers have lost no time getting started with the tinkling bells and creepy old men in red suits (having developed a paralyzing fear of Father Christmas in my childhood I really can not understand why he is an appealing figure to anyone, not to mention small children).

 

I’ve always made a point of noticing the first Christmassy advert that I see or hear and they always start creeping in around this time with phrases like, “Everything you need for the festive season”, and, “Jolly savings for you this Christmas” and then try to sell me dog food or nail varnish remover. I have honestly never understood how nail varnish remover is a jolly saving for me this festive season.

 

Of course this year advertisers are particularly excited to be able to add reassuring lines about being on “our side” during a global recession.

Going into the shops is obviously going to start getting worse and worse from this point on. Many of them already have their moth-eaten tinsel hanging from the ceiling as if this is some kind of sign to inspire me to buy processed cheese now.

Don’t misunderstand me; I am a fan of Christmas shopping. It’s fun to watch the people and there’s a strange sense of solidarity that exists among the frazzled shoppers (except the ones with screaming children who are often excluded from the general feeling of good will). At the same time it can be a really sad experience watching so many lost people filling there lives with, “Everything you need for the festive season”, instead of the one thing they need for life beyond just the festive season.

 

Which brings me to my next point, what on earth is this elusive thing called the “festive season”. It is so incredibly vague.

 

I was asked to sing at a Christmas lunch for a Cape Town based arts group. The woman in charge asked for, “Lots of Christmassy songs but no religious songs dear”. Sadly, this is totally possible what with “Jingle Bells”, “White Christmas”, and “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (the latter which I refused to sing for the preservation of my dignity as a human being). But quite honestly what’s the point?

 

The point is to keep everyone comfortable in the true spirit of mutual tolerance and “whatever you believe is true for you”. Even non-Christians who still bother to make the half hearted trip to church on Christmas day often leave without hearing the gospel (which is why we are so blessed to have solid Bible teaching at a church committed to reaching the lost).

 

Christmas has stopped confronting people with the truth of Christ but Xmas has started confronting people with “Jolly savings for you”.

 

The fact that the baby Jesus grows up to be the Jesus described in Revelation 19: 11 – 16 is totally ignored because Jesus doesn’t sell nail varnish remover and processed cheese as well as a sweaty old man with a fake beard.

“His eyes are like blazing fire and on His head are many crowns…He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God” (Rev 19: 12 – 13).

If this doesn’t make you stop in the madness to rethink the meaning of Christmas and perhaps feel a little affronted by the way it’s being replaced year by year I don’t know what will.